


Waking up Is the Hardest Part

by truegenius



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Baker Street, Character Death, F/M, Implied/Referenced Suicide, One Shot, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson if you squint - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 10:12:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3565835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truegenius/pseuds/truegenius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two officers show up on John Watson's doorstep with unexpected but -in John's eyes- simply boring news;</p><p>He waved Mary off, telling her that Sherlock was getting closer to catching Jim Moriarty. </p><p>"And someone came to the door to tell you that?" She asked uncertainly.</p><p>"Indirectly, yes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking up Is the Hardest Part

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! This is my first ever fic, and I will happily accept criticism! Please try not to be rude, however, and enjoy this one shot!  
> ~truegenius

John Watson did not necessarily  expect two officers to show up on his doorstep to tell him that his good friend Sherlock Holmes, (who still had him listed as an emergency contact), had been shot by an unidentified sniper. However, it didn't really come as a surprise. At first he had felt a pain in his gut, but it had subsided as he reminded himself that Sherlock had faked his death once before, and certainly could do so again, especially considering that they were chasing Moriarty. 

Well,  _Sherlock_ had been chasing Moriarty. John had been taking care of his family.

"You're really going to sit _this_ one out?" Sherlock had asked, "It- It's-" he looked exasperated, "It's Jim Moriarty!"

But John had still refused saying:

"I almost got killed last time we went after him. Do you really think I can leave Mary and my son like that?"

He never thought about how Sherlock had almost been killed, too.

When Mary asked who was at the door he waved her off, telling her that Sherlock was coming closer to catching Jim Moriarty.

"And someone came to the door to tell you that?" she asked uncertainly.

"Indirectly, yes." He sipped his coffee, sitting in his old chair he had taken from 221 B Baker Street.Mary thought about how reckless Sherlock had become after she and John had moved in together.

"Are you  _sure_ he's alright?"

"Yes, yes he's fine. Now be quiet about it, you know full well how crafty Moriarty is and you don't want to blow Sherlock's cover do you?"

Two days later, Jim Moriarty was announced in the local newspaper to have fallen off a building- committed suicide, really- and John declared:

"Sherlock will be coming home soon, thank God. I don't know why, but I've missed the damn genius."

He moved his old chair to the door, so he could wait up for Sherlock at night, in case he came home late, and carried on with his normal life. 

With a pained heart, Mary watched him grow old in that chair. She watched him acquire dark bags under his eyes and lose his good eyesight from reading in the dim light of night. She watched him reject case after case until there were no more and visit 221 B just in case "Sherlock is too ignorant to visit me first thing when he comes back." 

She watched him die in that chair, too. With labored breathing he had turned to her and told her to wake him up when Sherlock came home, and then he had fallen asleep as simple as that.

But in the end, John had never woken up and Sherlock had never come home.


End file.
